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Panel | “Infrastructure Development in Africa”
This panel will explore the role of private enterprise in developing and financing infrastructure development projects, and the key policies and initiatives (both public and private) required to ensure that investments in infrastructure are, in fact engines for sustainable growth and prosperity in Africa. Panelists will seek to address areas of opportunity and constraints as they pertain to infrastructure development across the continent. Topics to be covered include: what role the private sector has in addressing these issues and ensuring that investment in infrastructure is an asset to Africans, the telecommunications market, energy access, privatization among African countries and the specific challenges faced and opportunities available for advancement in Africa’s infrastructure.
Featuring
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DR. GEORGE BANJO
Dr. George Banjo is a Senior Transport Specialist in the Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank. Since joining the World Bank in 1997 in its Africa Region, his responsibilities have taken him to most countries in Anglophone Africa where he has been involved in the preparation and oversight of national, rural and urban transport projects.
Before joining the World Bank, George Banjo worked for governmental, consultancy and academic organizations in Europe and Africa, consulted for the World Bank, UNDP, ILO, and UN Habitat and was for several years a member of the Steering and Scientific Committees of the World Conference on Transport Research Society and the Developing Countries Committee of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Science of the USA.
He is the author of several publications in international journals and conference proceedings and joint editor (with H. Dimitriou) of the book Transport Planning in Third World Cities. He has a doctorate degree from the University of Liverpool, England. He is particularly concerned about the social dimensions of transport. He is a Christian by grace called to ministry.
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DR. CHANTAL COLLE
CEO, Alô-Guinée and Founder, La Fondation Chantal Colle
Dr. Chantal Colle is a Guinean businesswoman and CEO of Alô-Guinée – master distributor of Areeba, and she is the Founder of La Fondation Chantal Colle, dedicated to supporting development initiatives in Guinea. Alô-Guinée’s success embodies Africa moving forward by supporting the creativity, entrepreneurship and leadership of African women.
Prior to starting her own company, Dr. Colle held numerous leadership positions; she was the Public Relations Manager of Bayer, Director of Advertising for Marie-France, and Director of Legal Affairs for the Harder Group in the Netherlands. She also served as a communications consultant for the former Senegalese president Abdou Diouf and His Majesty Hassan II of Morocco, and she was a close collaborator of Lansana Conte, the former Guinean president.
Dr. Colle is currently working to create her own media company in Guinea. She already has her own online information website, a magazine, two FM radio stations, and she has a license pending for the first private TV station in Guinea. In September 2010, she is planning to open a first-class communication and media institute in Guinea.
She is a graduate of the Institut de Sciences Politiques in Paris and holds a Masters in Business Law and a Ph.D in Communications. |
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UCHE ALOZIE
Managing Partner, Almat Group LLC
Uche Alozie is a founding member of Almat Group, LLC, a real estate development and investment firm based in New York City. The firm specializes in the development and acquisition of multi-family properties in the New York City metropolitan area with special emphasis on Manhattan and Brooklyn. Mr. Alozie oversees all of the Almat Group’s acquisitions, sales, capital market activities as well as the investment strategy of the company.
Formed in 1999, the company has recently expanded its focus to the emerging markets of Africa with an emphasis on Nigeria and Ethiopia. Seeing the need for destination retail, Almat under its subsidiary, Almat Land (Nigeria) Ltd is in the pre-development stage of developing a 300,000 square-foot destination retail shopping mall along the Lekki Peninsula in Lagos, Nigeria. The firm is also providing advisory and consulting to leading firms in Nigeria’s real estate sector. In Ethiopia, Almat is assisting the Nigerian Foreign Ministry in the development of a new facility in Addis Ababa.
Almat, recognizing the need for better and improved road networks throughout Nigeria and the continent as a whole, has structured a deal to distribute Romix road products. Through its subsidiary, Almat plans to build and supply road construction products to facilitate the development of this lagging sector in Nigeria.
Mr. Alozie is a graduate of Columbia Business School, where he received a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Real Estate Finance. In addition, Mr. Alozie also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Baruch College and is a Certified Public Accountant in New York State. Prior to founding Almat Group, Mr. Alozie worked at Deloitte Consulting and Deloitte & Touche LLP as a senior and lead accountant specializing in real estate investment and financial companies.
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Panel Moderator
DR. ELLEN MORRIS, Ph.D.
Managing Director and Co-Founder, Arc Finance, Ltd
In 2008, Dr. Ellen Morris co-founded Arc Finance, a non-profit organization that promotes and expands access to financing for modern energy, water and other basic needs to build the income and assets of poor people around the world. She is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where she teaches graduate-level energy and development courses. Prior to founding Arc, she started Sustainable Energy Solutions (SES) in 1996, a company that focuses on international development, policy analysis, and research on energy issues for national governments, development agencies, foundations, and the private sector. Her pioneering work in energy and microfinance since 2004 has studied how to link the two sectors to meet the needs of the poor.
Most recently, Dr. Morris was the lead for the design and implementation of the Citi Foundation/USAID/SEEP Energy and Microfinance Research Initiative, and the findings were published in 2007. Since 1996, she has been the Senior Consultant for the United Nations Development Programme’s Sustainable Energy program. Her work at UNDP focuses on technical and programmatic support for countries seeking to advance energy as a means for poverty reduction. She has served on UNDP’s External Advisory Group on Environment and Energy since 2007.
Dr. Morris started her career in clean energy working for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. In the early part of her career, she worked as a Science Advisor to the U.S. Congress and as an exploration geophysicist for Texaco. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in geophysical engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and a doctoral degree in marine geophysics from the University of Rhode Island. |
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